Bynum talks on ‘Divorce Court’

By Mark Davis

The evangelist who said “I do” on TV will be saying “I won’t” on the same medium. Juanita Bynum is appearing on “Divorce Court.”

In episodes scheduled to air Thursday and Friday, Bynum will talk about her marriage to minister Thomas W. Weeks III, from whom she is separated and planning to divorce. He’s on probation for assaulting her; she’s planning to talk about it with Judge Lynn Toler on the nationally syndicated show.

Nor does Weeks, the minister’s lawyer, Randy Kessler said. “Reconciliation is not in the works and not even being discussed now,” he told the AP.

Things used to a lot rosier between the preacher and Bynum, a one-time hairdresser and flight attendant who rose to fame with her message of empowerment for women. They got married in a million-dollar, televised ceremony in 2002. They followed the nuptials with “Teach Me How to Love You: The Beginnings,” a book whose title ought to say it all.

Some of the book’s lessons apparently didn’t stick. On Aug. 21, a bellman broke up a fracas in the parking lot of the Renaissance Concourse Hotel near Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, pulling a man from a woman whom he was beating. The man was Weeks, and the woman, his wife.

Weeks pleaded guilty March 11 to assaulting his wife and was given three years’ probation. The court also ordered Weeks, pastor of Global Destiny Church in Duluth, to perform 200 hours of nonchurch-related community service and to enroll in an anger-management course.

Bynum, Toler says in the transcripts, is remarkably candid about the failed relationship. “It’s a tough situation anyway, and to do it in a fishbowl … I think she handled it with a lot of grace and aplomb,” her honor said.

Bynum knows a thing or two about fishbowls herself. TV appearances do that